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Overview

The problem with using something like Notepad or Word for editing drum tablature is that these apps were designed to handle lines of words, rather than lines of columns of characters. Taboo was designed specifically for the creation and modification of ASCII drum tablature. Its interface is simple with a focus on the tab, and its controls are intuitive and powerful, allowing you to do just about anything (within reason) to the tab with as few clicks as possible.

Okay, so you want to get to making writing out or editing some juicy drum tab! If you’re not too familiar with the specifics of reading and writing tablature, you may want to have a quick read of this educational little post. I’ll give you a minute. Done? All right, let’s do this.

This is where the magic happens

The Tab Body section of the main window is where you’ll be doing your tab editing. Interaction couldn’t be any simpler – just click with your mouse, and maybe hold down Control, Alt, and/or Shift to execute some fancy operations. Generally left clicking will create things while right clicking will remove them. Have a play around, or read some more about the mechanics of editing in the Controls section.

By default, you will be in Edit mode, which is the mode that lets you edit the tab with mouse clicks. The alternative is Input mode, where you can mess around with the tab the same way you would in Notepad. You’ll want to use Input mode for things that Edit mode doesn’t accomodate very well, such as inserting non-tab text on the same line as a tab. To switch between the two modes, simply select Toggle Edit from the Edit menu, or press Ctrl + E.

Much of Taboo’s information, such as how many consecutive times you can undo and what drums and templates are available are defined by a user Profile. You can modify most of these in the Configuration Panel, but you must create a new profile first (you can’t modify the Default profile). There’s a lot in there, so I’ll let you read the relevant documentation rather than trying to explain it here.